Page 15 of Cassian
She went to her office to have a look around.There were hundreds of books that she could use, and she was excited to have them.She knew that they were expensive and hard to get all of them together, but they’d given her such a gift that she could hardly contain her happiness.Hugging Cassian, she told him how much she loved him for doing this for her.
“I love you, and it’s my pleasure to do things for you like this.You’re my life, and it makes me happy to see you so happy.”She hugged him to her again and decided that she was in the perfect place to be held, and kept her arms around him.“You are my heart of all hearts, love, and I can’t believe that you’ve found me when you did.”
“I’m the lucky one.To think that I kept pushing you away all the time because I was afraid that you’d leave me.Now I can’t stand a moment without you by my side, or I’ll go insane.”He said he felt the same way.“Good.Then we’ll keep each other happy by staying close all the time.I just don’t know what I’d do without you.”
She played in the backyard with Cassian for several hours.By the time dinner was ready, she was covered in sweat and grass and felt like her legs were going to buckle.While she thought that things would get better soon, she was getting more frustrated every time she tried to fly, and all she did was tumble in the grass like she’d tripped over something.Then she heard that Kaida had gotten up in the air.
She reached out to her to find out how she’d done it.The men were doing a good job in teaching her, but she had a feeling that Kaida had figured something out on her own and would share it with her.As soon as she told her that she was ready to give up on it, then she could fly.Raven was so disappointed in herself that she wanted to sob.Going out into the yard, she decided that she wasn’t going to listen to Cassian about it anymore and do things her own way.
It took her another frustrating two hours before she felt like she’d gotten it.Landing was still hard, but she knew if she could get up into the sky, the rest would be easy.After twilight, she decided that she’d waited long enough and had taken to the skies.It was the most freeing thing she’d ever done in her life, and she was never going to come back down to earth if it was the last thing that she did.
When Cassian joined her as his great dragon, they flew through the skies on their own until the others started joining them in pairs, one at a time.She was surprised to find that Skye’s dragon was much larger than hers, but she found that she really didn’t care.She was in the sky, where she felt she belonged.
Cassian and his cousins knew tricks that they could do that would have them soaring upward beyond the clouds and bring them down again at breathtaking speeds.She wasn’t ready for that, but did play with them when they were at her level.The other women seemed to be doing well now that they’d figured out the flight thing, and she was happy that she had one more thing she could share with them as dragons.
They flew for hours, and she’d been able to land once without any trouble, but she was nervous about doing it again.Laying on the grass, she was glad for the darkness because there was no one to see how exhausted she was again.She knew that she’d get used to it, but for now, it was like she was exercising all the time, and it was wearing her out.
When Cassian joined her in the yard, she curled her dragon up close to his and closed her eyes.She told herself it would only be for a few minutes and that she only wanted to rest.The dreams started right away.
She was flying through the night sky when she came upon a group of farmers out in the fields.They were screaming at her about some kind of fire, but she was just too far away to hear them.Getting closer, landing on the ground next to them, they ran at her with pitchforks and hatches.Getting back into the sky seemed paramount, but she couldn’t get her legs to work.Just as they were ready to stab her in the heart, she woke up from her dream and startled Cassian.She told him what she’d dreamt about.
“That doesn’t happen all that much nowadays.As I said to you before, they know that we’re dragons, but I don’t think they really care.”She asked about the way they were set to kill her.“I think you’ve had a great deal of drama happening in the last few months, and everything seems like someone is out to kill you.It’s a small wonder that you don’t have dreams about being beaten up more often, what with all the things that Daniel has been saying about you and how you were going to help him.”
“That is true.He did tell me every time I saw him how much he’d enjoyed beating the shit out of me when I’d quit.”She thought of that day and shivered.“I wonder what makes a person think like that.I mean, to think it’s justified in treating someone else like they mean nothing to them.”
“You would have meant a great deal to him.I’m not saying that he was right in thinking that you’d calm him down, but I do wonder what would have happened to you had you not been enoughfor that one time he really lost his temper.I believe that he would have eventually killed you.Then the only reason that he would have been sorry was because you were gone, and he had no one else to beat on for a while.But I’m sure he would have found just that perfect person again until he got so angry again that he killed the next person as well.It would have gone on for years had he been able to get anyone to go along with his plans.”
“I’d never seen his temper until that time.He’d had one and would rant and rave about things not going his way.It was why we were all happy when he left us for a couple of hours.So much got done, and when he returned, he was always in a better mood.However, I don’t want to think about what he was doing in his time off from work.I hope it wasn’t that he was beating someone like the homeless to make himself feel better.”She looked around the yard and was shocked to see that at some point she’d shifted back to her human form.
“The magic does that for you in the event that you’re found while resting.Someone would come across your big beast and kill you while you were out.The magic puts you back to human form so that you can rest easily and not have to be on guard as much while as a dragon.Dragons of old used to fall into a large area of cattle and then change into their other form to rest.No one would think that a human person would destroy so many cattle as it would take to fill a full-sized dragon.”She laughed about that, thinking that it was funny that dragons were so smart.He laughed with her, telling her another story about dragons.“There are water dragons that used to come upon great ships that would be carrying loads of fish.They’d of course destroy the ship to get to the fish and whatever else they had going on.Then, when they were found, usually up on the shore of some tropical island, they’d live there for a while, knowing that food was only a dive away.”
“I’d love to hear stories like that.From when you were younger.”He said that the four of them, his brother and cousins, would have adventures all the time.“I bet you did.You should write them down and sell them as fantasy.I know that I’d read them all.”
They talked about his adventures as a younger dragon until the others left.They had things to do this morning at the courthouse, and so did Cassian and she.They had made arrangements to be married by the judge who was presiding over the Connor and Waggoner trials today, and wanted their part just out of the way.The only people who knew what they were doing were Brenin and Tucker, and Kaida.They were going to serve as witnesses.Raven felt like her life was starting over on a good note, and she couldn’t have been happier.
Chapter 7
Jason sat stunned on his cot.He knew that he was going back to prison someday, not that he wanted it to happen, but to have ninety-eight life sentences was more than he thought anyone should get.Then he added on without parole.Ninety-eight lifetimes, he was going to be living in a prison cell.That was more lives than he had.He looked up at someone when they said his name.He couldn’t focus on who it was until they told him.
“It’s Skye Savage.You asked to see me.”Had he?He didn’t know why he’d do that since she was the one who had gotten him caught.Thinking hard, he tried to remember what he’d wanted to see her about.“If you don’t want to talk to me, then I’m going home.I have to admit, I’m thrilled with the verdict and how much time you’re getting.”Then he remembered why he’d wanted to see her.
“You wouldn’t die.And I know several times when you were in my sights, but I just couldn’t get you to die.You should have been dead long ago.”She said that she was just lucky.“No, it’s more than that.You don’t understand.I shot you several times, and you never would just die like you should have.I’m betting now you had someone watching over you, and that’s why when I killed you, you never stayed dead.”
“Then I don’t understand what it is you’re telling me.What do you mean you shot me several times?You just missed, that’s all.”He shook his head and told her that he never missed her.She’d been shot.“Well, obviously, you did miss because here I stand.”
“No one is that lucky.You had to have some magical shit going on, and that’s what saved you.I’m betting right now if I were to shoot you, you’d just walk away.There wouldn’t be any way I’d miss with you standing this close.”She took a step back.“I don’t have a gun, you idiot.How would that even happen?I’m in a jail cell, just like the one I’m going to be spending the rest of my life in, thanks wholly to you.”
“How is you killing all those people, my fault?You were killing people before I ran away with Trevor.I suppose next you’re going to tell me you killed him as well.”He said he never would have killed Trevor, as he was the money maker.She was just collateral damage.“You’re mistaken, that’s all.You couldn’t have killed me now anyway.I’m immortal.”
“You’ve always been immortal.”She looked like she’d thought of something, and he knew when whatever she was thinking occurred to you.“What?What did you just remember?I have a right to know since this is all your fault.”
“I don’t know how you think this is my fault, but you might be right in me being immortal all along.”He asked her what she meant.Instead of answering him, she called out for someone called Lady Earth or something like that.Suddenly, there was a woman standing next to Skye.She explained to her what he’d said to her.
The woman looked like magic.Not magical so much as she was magic.There was a light surrounding her that made you think she was just good.Not good at something, but good to people, creatures of the earth, and anything else that roamed around.When she frowned at Skye, even the creases in her forehead looked beautiful.Because in that moment, he realized that she was the most beautiful creature of any kind he’d ever seen.She turned to look at him.
“You never were a good person, where you, Jason Waggoner.”His name, one that he’d been proud of since he’d learned to kill people, sounded like a curse.“I remember you pulling the wings off my faeries and little brownies.No, you were never a good person at all.”
“You saved her.”She said that one of her faeries had saved her.“I knew it.I was better than that all along.”
